Five attributes of people-centric, outcome-driven change management

Change is no longer just an enabler of transformation; it’s a strategic business priority.

According to the latest CGI Voice of Our Clients (VOC) research, business and IT leaders are increasingly prioritizing operational efficiency, automation, cybersecurity, and seamless customer and citizen experiences. As these priorities evolve, the ability to effectively lead and manage change becomes essential, not just to execute strategy but to shape it.

The most effective organizations differentiate themselves through advanced change management capabilities. These capabilities enable stronger alignment between business and IT, resulting in measurable, sustainable outcomes. In this environment, how organizations lead change, both at the human and enterprise levels, has never been more critical.

At the same time, navigating fast-paced, complex, and ongoing change remains a significant challenge. Adapting work habits, transforming processes, and improving performance through change management is key, but also a major hurdle. While priorities have shifted, our VOC research points to increasing organizational complexity and talent-related barriers as significant constraints to achieving strategic goals.

This is why the question today is no longer whether organizations need professional change management, but how to approach it strategically. Over the past 20 years, especially in the last decade, I’ve recognized an accelerating interest in change management at the C-level.

Many clients have elevated change management responsibilities to senior and executive levels, such as the Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief Transformation Officer, or Chief Change Officer, reinforcing its strategic importance. Also, other C-level stakeholders are getting actively involved. In one of my current engagements, the Chief Digital Officer, and in a second engagement the Chief Operating Officer, have been appointed internal project sponsors.

Integrating and leveraging change management from day one, being aware of human-centered risks, and analyzing human-centered impact from the strategy development and planning stage is a game changer for projects and programs, reducing risks and enhancing performance.

Conversely, a lack of investment in change management can contribute to costly project failures. On the upside, however, Prosci reports that projects with excellent change management programs are six times more likely to achieve expected business goals than those with poor or no change management.

Attributes of people-centric, value-driven change management

Whether driven by macro trends or incremental shifts, change impacts organizations, leading to new roles, responsibilities, and work behaviors. In my opinion, organizations face three key questions:

1. How can they secure the buy-in, adoption, and engagement from their professionals?
2. How should affected stakeholders be guided throughout the change?
3. How can organizational models and processes be adapted and change effectiveness measured to ensure tangible outcomes?

Discussing these questions at an early stage is imperative. By addressing them meaningfully, a holistic understanding and a solid change management approach becomes inevitable. In my experience, five key pillars are critical to success.

• Purposeful vision: The transformation’s vision has a clear purpose that is communicated openly, clearly, and frequently with stakeholders.
• Empathetic change leadership: Change leaders are motivated by empathy and invest in active listening, empowerment, role modeling, and influence. In today’s environment, where employees often navigate continuous transformations, empathetic leadership becomes increasingly vital. Many experience change fatigue due to frequent digital shifts, operational restructuring, or new compliance demands. Leaders who recognize and respond to these emotional impacts help build resilience, reduce resistance, and foster employee engagement.
• Sound strategy and alignment: A holistic assessment of the organization’s culture, impact chains, and human-centered risks drives the change strategy and ensures enterprise-wide alignment. This alignment becomes especially critical in complex transformations involving automation, AI, new cybersecurity protocols, or digital customer experience improvements, where unclear ownership can quickly undermine progress and trust.
• Iterative implementation: The organization acts iteratively and adjusts strategies and actions, as necessary, at optimum speed. With AI adoption accelerating rapidly, agile leadership becomes essential, not only for successful technology deployment but also for managing the unique human impacts, ethical considerations, and adoption challenges introduced by these technologies.
• Qualitative and quantitative metrics: Change management progress, benefit realization, and adoption are measured consistently and accurately. Given ongoing pressures to achieve cost efficiencies, tracking these metrics also clearly demonstrates how effective change management can directly support financial objectives, reducing waste and accelerating return on investment.

In working with clients across industries and across the globe for several decades, I’ve learned that, with these pillars, any organization in any industry can implement a sustainable change management approach. Such an approach will advance the transformation's legitimacy, accessibility, and attractiveness while also becoming embedded within the organization’s DNA.

Further, this type of approach will drive meaningful change management, regardless of the type or size of the change initiative, the stakeholders involved, or the complexities faced. Ultimately, it leads to people-centric, outcome-driven change management that reduces risks, delivers expected outcomes, and improves people, processes, and performance.

Aligning change management capabilities

The capabilities required for an effective approach depend on the type of transformation your organization is pursuing. Common transformations and their corresponding capabilities include the following:

• End-to-end transformation: If your organization is undergoing a large and/or complex transformation involving, for example, many employees, multiple countries, departments, cultures, or external stakeholders (e.g., partners, vendors, customers, suppliers), choose a change management approach with the capabilities to manage change strategy development, execution, and adoption from end to end.
• Cultural integration: Strategic change management provides a robust cultural integration roadmap. This roadmap enables the organization and stakeholders to adapt and merge practices, habits, and principles, without sacrificing core values and beliefs. A strategically managed roadmap and commitment fostered through training, appreciation, and communication ensures a smooth cultural integration (e.g., in post-merger integrations or in the transition to managed services).
• Novel technologies/methods adoption: Novel or complex transformations require a change management approach designed specifically to manage unique impacts and increased risks. Examples include transformations involving artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, cloud migration, data-driven business model implementation, ESG, and new compliance requirements.
• Work design and talent management: Every transformation impacts your organization’s way of working. As a result, finding a change management approach that supports the development and adoption of a future of work roadmap, while fostering a culture of belonging and driving long-term employee retention is crucial.

For any transformation, invest in a change management approach that offers a range of change accelerators. Accelerator examples include culture and change strategy development, culture blueprint development, Change Management Office setup, post-change adoption assessment, among others.

Partnering for success

Successful change management requires organizational commitment, change leadership, and “stickiness” (i.e., the change management efforts must be sustainable). While these factors demand internal resources, an external partner can significantly help, particularly with special change initiatives such as mergers, reorganizations, or introducing new technologies such as GenAI and agentic AI.

Look for a partner with extensive cross-industry experience, strong change management accreditations, a collaborative and accountable partnership approach, and the ability to deliver not only consulting insights and strategies, but also supporting frameworks, tools, and technologies.

CGI has decades of experience in delivering change management consulting services to clients across industries and around the world. In my role as global leader for CGI’s Change Management business consulting service, it’s exciting to see how organizations are placing increasing strategic value on change management, not just as a project enabler, but as a core capability to deliver operational efficiency, digital transformation, and risk resilience.

With the right pillars in place and the right partner by your side, change becomes more than manageable; it becomes a source of strength and competitive advantage. If you'd like to discuss the insights I’ve shared or learn more about how we help clients deliver people-centric, outcome-driven change, feel free to reach out. Also, learn more about CGI’s change management work and capabilities.